Week 4 Premier League Predictions 2017-18

We have made it past the first of these disruptive international weeks and finally get a return of some real football. For my predictions of week 4 matches there are many narratives that have been hyped. Arsenal have been struggling at both ends of the pitch. Man City may be winning, but certainly haven’t looked as strong as they should be considering how much work they have put into spending big to strengthen their squad. Liverpool may score a lot of goals, but they allow just as many. Manchester United haven’t played any “real” competition yet. Tottenham are just lucky to get to play on the road, because they can’t win at Wembley. Chelsea got burned in the transfer market and are definitely going to struggle.

Many of these narratives are preposterous, but grounded in some basis of reality, or at the very least they are based on specific perceptions.

Week 4 Predictions:

Time

Home

Away

Final Score

Saturday, September 9

7:30/12:30

Man City

2

v

2

Liverpool

5-0

10:00/15:00

Arsenal

2

v

1

Bournemouth

3 – 0

10:00/15:00

Brighton

0

v

0

West Brom

3-1

10:00/15:00

Everton

1

v

1

Tottenham

0-3

10:00/15:00

Leicester City

1

v

2

Chelsea

1 – 2

10:00/15:00

Southampton

1

v

1

Watford

0-2

12:30/17:30

Stoke City

1

v

2

Manchester United

2-2

Sunday, September 10

8:30/13:30

Burnley

1

v

0

Crystal Palace

1 – 0

8:30/13:30

Swansea City

2

v

0

Newcastle

0-1

Monday, September 11

15:00/20:00

West Ham

1

v

0

Huddersfield

2 – 0

Week 4 FPL Tips

One of the biggest moves that I plan to make prior to week 4 is to drop Kevin De Bruyne. In three matches he has picked up a modest 8 points. That’s not bad, or at least it wouldn’t be bad for a 7.0 or lower midfielder. For someone who is sucking up 9.9 of my budget, he’s not worth it. I also have Tom Carroll in my team who is a much better value at 4.5 and also has 8 points as well as 9 points from Nathan Redmond at 6.5.

The problem with De Bruyne is that he is being played way too deep in this Man C setup to be an effective FPL player. It’s possible that he could still pick up goals and assists in the future, once the squad settles into whatever it is that Pep wants from them, but for now, he’s not producing on the level that a 9.9 player should be.

In other fantasy setups, like Togga, he’s still worth keeping, but his value is well below what a player of his caliber should be. Instead, David Silva is taking the role of playing further forward as their playmaker and will pick up more points this season if he continues to do so.

If you are looking to stay within the Man C squad, then swapping De Bruyne for Silva (8.1) would be a good move. Personally, I have completed bought into the idea that Paul Pogba (8.2) is going to have an amazing top 5 FPL performance this season. If you already have him going with any of Mohamed Salah (9.0), Sadio Mane (9.6), or Christian Eriksen (9.6) are excellent choices. My own choice is most likely going to be a move to Eriksen. I don’t buy into the Wembley curse, at least not for the full season. There will come a time when they will win and I do believe this will propel them at home for the remainder of the season.

That wraps up another week of my predictions and brief FPL tips. I’m ready to get back into enjoying some football again as I’m sure all of you are as well. Good luck and have fun!